Shelving Modification/Stabilization

[Billz]

I'm looking to adjust my shelving unit, so that is more stable, and able to better handle the weight of my collection.

It's modular shelving, and it's holding for now, but the brackets are only little pegs, holding the shelves up in a frame. The shelves themselves are showing signs of center strain.

I'd like to hear some recommendations for better shelf supports, rather than forking out for a whole new unit.

[My_Two_Cents]

Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of MDF or particleboard furniture is that longer shelving not permanently attached to the side supports tend to sag under even small amounts of weight. My only suggestion would be to get some 3/4" x 3/4" angle-iron (most likely it's actually aluminum), cut it to the length of the shelves and attach to the bottom of the shelves (down the center-line) using at least 5 or more screws.

I've got a bookshelf that's starting to do the same thing, and have been meaning to pick up some angle stock to give this a try. It should work, as (right) angle stock is designed for support, as it will not bend against the "legs" without a great deal of force. It may not look ideal, but you can paint it a matching color to hide it as best as you can.

[ZoetMB]

Unless one has a lot of special boxed sets with books inside, I really doubt that any shelving unit, no matter how cheaply made, is going to bend under the weight of BDs. BDs (and their packaging) are incredibly lightweight.

Now if you have magazines, books, VHS tapes or vinyl LPs in that unit, that's another story. I have an Ikea unit that's starting to bend. It sits on legs and I'm going to have to put a support unit as a "fifth leg" under each unit at the center of the bottom shelf. But that unit is filled with journals, hardcover books and magazines.

[BluBrown]

What if you just put a small piece of wood vertically in the middle of each shelf for added support to help with sagging. Does that make sense?

[walmat]

A couple of "L" brackets maybe 4" vertical and horizontal on each end should do the trick.

[Kali157]

How thick is the back of the shelf? If it isn't an extremely thin material, you can add a strip of wood under each shelf. I attached a (crude) pic that is a cross section if you are looking at the shelves from the side. The blue is the back of the shelves. The green are the shelves. The red is the strip of wood that can run the entire width of each shelf (or at least a good portion of it).



Some of our pantry shelves were starting to sag (made of MDF), and I did this to fix the problem. It was actually cheaper than buying a bunch of metal angles especially if your shelves are really wide. I placed strips of wood the length of maybe a little over 60% of the width of the shelves. I centered it of course.

[Billz]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

Unless one has a lot of special boxed sets with books inside, I really doubt that any shelving unit, no matter how cheaply made, is going to bend under the weight of BDs. BDs (and their packaging) are incredibly lightweight.

It's mostly steelbooks on the top shelf. Thing about my shelves, is that they are "double-rowed (2 rows of Blu-ray and DVDs on each shelf)", which is where all the weight comes from. And there are a couple of large boxsets on there too (The Mummy Collection, Stargate SG-1 1-10, LOST 1-6, Superman 1-5 Metal Tin Edition, to name a few).

Originally Posted by BluBrown

What if you just put a small piece of wood vertically in the middle of each shelf for added support to help with sagging. Does that make sense?

Wouldn't that just add more weight to the shelf under each wood support?

Originally Posted by walmat

A couple of "L" brackets maybe 4" vertical and horizontal on each end should do the trick.

Might work on the side panels, but not on the back, as I'll explain below.

Originally Posted by Kali157

How thick is the back of the shelf? If it isn't an extremely thin material, you can add a strip of wood under each shelf. I attached a (crude) pic that is a cross section if you are looking at the shelves from the side. The blue is the back of the shelves. The green are the shelves. The red is the strip of wood that can run the entire width of each shelf (or at least a good portion of it).



Some of our pantry shelves were starting to sag (made of MDF), and I did this to fix the problem. It was actually cheaper than buying a bunch of metal angles especially if your shelves are really wide. I placed strips of wood the length of maybe a little over 60% of the width of the shelves. I centered it of course.

The back unfortunately, is only 5mm hardboard, which I had to get cut up at work (Homebase), as the original supplied backing board was snapped in two.

Such thin board on the back, eliminates the possibility of nailing any wood supports or extra brackets there.

I went with a modular shelving unit, as it presents an easy installation of extra shelves if needed, rather than taking the whole unit apart and rebuilding it with more shelves.

I did have an idea to cut large holes in the sides of the frame, and sliding in steel bars (2 for each shelf), but then I thought that wouldn't have helped the weight problem, and it would've comprimised the overall structural integrity of the unit itself.

[BluBrown]

Originally Posted by Billz

Wouldn't that just add more weight to the shelf under each wood support?

If you put the wood support on every shelf, directly below one another, there will be no added stress on any shelf....assuming your shelving unit sits on the floor. Unless I'm misinterpreting the laws of gravity

[Billz]

Originally Posted by BluBrown

If you put the wood support on every shelf, directly below one another, there will be no added stress on any shelf....assuming your shelving unit sits on the floor. Unless I'm misinterpreting the laws of gravity

My apologies.

I've been up all night, fixing 3 computers. I wasn't thinking coherently this morning, due to being overworked the whole night.

[Anthony P]

I don't think L brackets on the sides will help since the issue is the middle of the shelf. On the other hand you might be able to put a vertical piece of wood in back and screw the L brackets there.

[jw]

Lowes or Home Depot sell the same color boards you can cut down to strengthen the shelf. I have black shelving from Wal-Mart and modified the 5 shelf system to 7 or 8 shelves to accommodate more movies/more shelves.

They boards are located in the closet systems aisle, not lumber.

[Billz]

Originally Posted by jw

Lowes or Home Depot sell the same color boards you can cut down to strengthen the shelf. I have black shelving from Wal-Mart and modified the 5 shelf system to 7 or 8 shelves to accommodate more movies/more shelves.

They boards are located in the closet systems aisle, not lumber.

I'll see about getting more shelves installed, and spreading out my collection a bit more then.

[joeyvaz]

Get some 1"x1" lumber, cut to the length of the shelf. Put it along the back edge of the shelf, screw it on each side of the unit, with appropriate screw (coarse thread- length depends on thickness of side panes) I'd also screw shorter screws along the back edge of original shelf into new piece of 1"x1" lumber. Just be sure screws won't protrude past new support or it will look hacked.

Same can be done along front edge if necessary. Stain or paint to match and you should be fine.